Self-employment

Entrepreneurs help realtors to sell homes

Real estate is a fiercely competitive industry with approximately 56,000 agents operating in Ontario alone.

ROGER PIERCE -- www.bizlaunch.ca
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Andre McKenzie and Natasha Pearcy own Silver House, a company producing online video tours of homes for sale for real estate agents.

With all those agents fighting to find buyers and sellers, it's natural for them to embrace any competitive advantage they can find.

"Our online video tours can help an agent to land a listing client or to sell a property already listed," entrepreneur Andre McKenzie says.

McKenzie and Natasha Pearcy own Silver House (www.SilverHouseHD.com), a company offering creative marketing solutions to real estate professionals. The firm creates high definition video tours of properties for sale specifically designed for online streaming and distribution.

"People looking to buy a new home don't always have time to visit each listing," McKenzie says. "Our videos make it easier for them to get a feel for a property before going out to see it.


"It's a great sales tool that certainly adds value to any Realtor's services," he adds.

The company can also help clients with website design, logo or brand identity development, and general marketing and promotions. Video tours can be produced in High Definition (HD) so viewers can get a really good look at a property.

Because most of their work is done in-house, Silver House can produce videos for a very affordable price, which is attractive to most Realtors operating on a tight marketing budget.

For months, McKenzie and Pearcy watched the use of streaming video spread across the Internet and realized the real estate industry was not taking advantage of this trend.

"We felt that online video held the potential to be highly effective and appealing for Realtors," Pearcy says. "We knew we were onto something good when our family members who work in the real estate business encouraged us to launch the business."

Both McKenzie and Pearcy say they were drawn to self-employment by the promise of time flexibility, the luxury of working from a home-based office, tax benefits and the chance to apply their skills to building something of their own.

Future plans for Silver House include expanding its team of sales representatives, hiring more videographers and opening an office in Florida. "We're tapping into a very strong niche market that we think we can serve anywhere in the world," Pearcy says.



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